It's time for college-football fans to take sides: Which teams should play in the Jan. 6 BCS championship game?

Auburn's upset of Alabama on Saturday shattered what had seemed inevitable—an Alabama versus Florida State national championship game—introducing a host of new possibilities.

The final Bowl Championship Series rankings come out Sunday, after a marquee lineup of Saturday conference-championship games that conceivably could make contenders out of outliers such as No. 10 Michigan State.

So here's a question: What does your rooting preference say about you? Are you a proud Southerner who has a weakness for all things new and fabulous? Or are you a practical Midwesterner who believes in moral absolutes and adherence to steadfast principles?

To help you figure it out, the Journal has compiled a handy guide to college-football factions.

No. 1 Florida State Seminoles

Main constituencies: Perfectionists, Southerners who happen to be sick of the SEC, schools that still have live-animal mascots, Heisman Trophy worshipers, Duke-haters.

Top argument: Florida State, with Heisman favorite quarterback Jameis Winston, has been so dominant this season that the Seminoles haven't even played a close game. They're beating their opponents by an average of 25 points—at halftime.

Inconvenient truth: Florida State plays in the relatively weak ACC. After drubbing then-No. 3 Clemson on the road in October, Florida State padded its résumé with silly blowouts of patsies such as Wake Forest (59-3) and Idaho (80-14). The only team between the Seminoles and their trip to the title game in Pasadena, Calif., is 29-point underdog Duke, whose upset would match the biggest in college football this season, according to Pregame.

No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes

Top argument: Perfection rules. Ohio State is an undefeated team from a power conference that hasn't lost in two seasons under coach Urban Meyer.

Inconvenient truths: Rooting for the Buckeyes and their weak schedule is like stapling three McDonald's patties together and calling it filet mignon. Ohio State has one victory over a ranked team: a 31-24 win over current No. 21 Wisconsin. (Squeaking by unranked Michigan doesn't count.) The so-called zero worshipers of Ohio State must defend their coattails against fans of Northern Illinois, who insist that their 12-0 is just as valid as Ohio State's and Florida State's 12-0.

No. 3 Auburn Tigers

Top argument: Auburn won its SEC division by dethroning Alabama—and for that alone the Tigers deserve a ticker-tape parade. If they beat Missouri for their third top-10 win this season, they're worthy of a national-championship spot.

Inconvenient truths: Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs has said that a one-loss SEC champion not playing for a national title would be, "quite frankly, un-American." If that is the case, then college football's championship might look downright French. The BCS is alive for a few more weeks, and unless Florida State or Ohio State loses, college football's haughtiest conference is probably out. Too bad it isn't next season, when a four-team playoff begins.

No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide

Main constituencies: Old-man football admirers, people with initials for first names (AJ, CJ, TJ), houndstooth-cloth wholesalers, Nick Saban's agent.

Top argument: Roll Tide! Secondary argument: Alabama is the two-time defending national champion and its only blemish this season was a last-second loss on the road to archrival Auburn. Let's be honest: Alabama is still the best team in college football.

Inconvenient truths: The Tide's lone loss was recent and spectacular, coming on Auburn's 109-yard touchdown return of a failed Alabama field-goal attempt. Alabama needs Ohio State and Florida State to lose if it has any hope of playing in its fourth title game in five years.

No. 5 Missouri Tigers

Top argument: In its second year of SEC play, Missouri is somehow playing for a conference title, having lost only in a double-overtime heartbreaker to South Carolina. SEC fans insist that a BCS championship spot is the league's birthright, so why not Missouri? (If one-loss Michigan State beats Ohio State in the Big Ten title game, then the one-loss Spartans also will shout "Why not us?" from the top of the state capitol.)

Inconvenient truth: Missouri won an SEC division that looked more like the so-so Big 12 Conference it recently fled. The Tigers didn't play Auburn, Alabama and LSU—the top three teams on the other side—during the regular season. A win over Auburn would be Missouri's first over a current top-20 team. Even a Missouri blowout this weekend likely wouldn't matter if Florida State and Ohio State win—which would only make the SEC's cranky loyalists howl louder.

Regardless of today's outcome--in the SEC Championship Auburn vs Missouri--the game ought to be over in the first half. With both team's hurry up offense, each team ought to get off over 70 plays before the half. In all probability, the half time should last longer than the game. Both teams will have played the normal complement of plays in the first half.

It is sickening that people seek validation of their lives as sports fans. So Shallow and meaningless."To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea" James Madison 1788

Rachel and Ben are such haters - of the Buckeyes that is - that they let their hatred get in the way of fair and accurate analysis. Here is a prime example: One cannot give FSU all nature of credit and praise for beating what was at the time a third ranked Clemson team and then turn around and say that OSU only played ("played" and "beat" carries the very same meaning for OSU) one ranked team (Wisconsin). When OSU played Northwestern, the team was ranked 16th. All we ask is fairness. But none of this matters. When OSU beats Michigan State and then goes on to win the very last BCS National Championship, it will make our gloating sweeter and our laughing louder to remember the unfairness of the haters.

Jordan Hare stadium in Auburn is slated for a name change--Saint Jordan Hare. Three miracles have occurred there, this year. Mississippi State, Georgia and Alabama. I have heard that the Vatican is sending a team to Auburn. Canonization is eminent.

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